Businesspeople and consumers alike want to see more federal-state cooperation in this year’s budget, which will be unveiled by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on Friday.

Real Estate and Housing Developers Association’s (Rehda) Penang branch chairperson, Jerry Chan, said the budget’s focus on the housing sector must address the federal Housing Ministry’s continued delay in approving the developers' and advertising licences.

“Don’t make us victims of the dispute between the state and federal governments because we (private developers) have not taken sides. Please work together as there is no point keeping up the political aggravation,” he told Malaysiakini .

Chan ( photo ) wants to see the budget address the challenges of first-time home buyers, where many of their application for loans have been rejected by the local banks.

He is aware that cost of houses and apartments in Penang are high, and even with loan applications made easy, the public may not be able to afford them.

“Why single out Penang as the federal government under its PR1MA housing scheme also sets a certain price range?

“Government-linked developers have federal allocations to build houses while private developers like us do not,” Chan added.

He said the budget must review policies that influence housing cost before the economy picks up and prices see another increase, “but don’t pass the burden to private developers”.

Chan said the government must think of ways to spur consumption to help the economy, and proposed that the Goods and Services Tax (GST), effective April this year, be deferred for this financial year.

“We need to give the economy a certain boost, and there is no point talking about reducing income tax because the man who is balancing the books cannot even balance it,” he said.

Reduce toll rates as they burden people

Penang Consumers Protection Association president, Koris Atan, said the budget must pay more attention on the public transport system, and called for the reduction in toll rates as they burdened the people.

Koris also asked that the budget include subsidies for public taxis and buses, so that the cost of using these vehicles can be reduced, and will not be passed on to consumers.

“Give taxi drivers interest-free loans when they buy taxis or free tyres, so that their charges will not be so high and this will attract more public users,” he said.

He called on the BN-led federal government to put aside its differences with Pakatan Harapan, and work together to improve public transport in Penang.

“Their differences are evident in cases where the state government wants to provide free coupons for senior citizens to use the public transport and this is rejected by the federal government,” he claimed.

“Don’t just treat Penang as an opposition state, please think of the people,” Koris lamented.

He also called for the 10 percent Sales and Services Tax (SST), which is imposed on top of the six percent GST by certain shops and eateries, except hotels, be abolished.

“Officially, the 10 percent SST is given back to the workers - two percent to the unions for their administrative work, and eight percent to be shared by the workers.

“But other than hotels, why are the companies charging the 10 percent? This is serious and we urge the authorities to look into this matter,” he added.

Koris also said the budget should look into the plight of retired civil servants (pensioners) who earned merely RM200 to RM400 in pension.

“They should be getting RM800 as minimum payment, and not RM200 or RM400 which they have been getting since the day they retired,” he said.

Meanwhile, Penang executive councillor on housing, Jagdeep Singh Deo ( photo ), said Budget 2016 must give priority to first-time home buyers, and address the high rate of rejection (70 percent) of bank loan applications.

The highest loan rejection cases are found in Johor, Selangor and Penang, he added.

“We hope that the budget will address the concerns of the housing sector, including first-time home buyers, in light of the high rejection rate of loan applications,” he said.

Jagdeep said he has raised the issue with Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, via letters sent in July and September, to urge her to meet with Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to resolve this problem.

He added that following this, Zeti’s deputy, Abu Hassan Aishari Yahaya, has agreed to meet him on Nov 2.